Amendment XVIII Repealed 1933/11/13

[DCUPtoejuice]

We would have been so much better off with him instead of FDR

[margotdarby]

Al stands up for Western Civilization, a "foreign" concept to many people.

[llar87]

@ptevlin "Al Smith was probably the greatest governor New York ever had" what about FDR?

[margotdarby]

@llar87 FDR made it into the White House pretty quickly; didn't have much time to be the reformer Al Smith was.

[Ironskillet]

Yeah, he was part Italian, but he identified himself w/ the Irish American community and became a spokesman for the Irish, but being from New York he spoke to many different communities.

[sgrroiii]

Part Italian ?

[Seanopolis9]

thanks for the clip of a great American, Democrat, public servant, and New Yorker. Al Smith was the real thing. A good man who would have been a great president.

[DF1234567]

I've been reading alot about him lately. I like his story. He was part italian and part irish and catholic. He was the first presidential nominee that was either one of those groups. He ran against racial violence, religious bigotry, and he was for the working class. He eventually became a republican because he wasn't as progressive as fdr, but he was more of a moderate republican, he moved the republican party in more of a moderate direction on economics

[Seanopolis9]

Yes, Gov. Smith was an optimist and a people person who believed that the entire U.S. would be like the NYC Lower East Side ward he grew up in: where neighbors looked out for each other and cared for each other. Unfortunately, it was not like that nationwide. Gov. Smith and even his wife, Katie, were savagely attacked in least in part because of their religion. Smith was astounded, crushed electorally and personally, and, according to some of his friends and allies, was never the same.

[ShmorgelBorgel]

There were other presidents and presidential candidates of Irish descent before him, but Al Smith was the first Irish Catholic to be a serious contender. (Although he was also of Italian and English descent.)

[nofacesniper]

@Seanopolis9 filthy democrat.

[billyguns2]

We never learl; we are repeating the same mistake with the horrendous "war on drugs" and "war on terrorism." Seems as if we just can't get enough "war" to instill our self-righteous "values." Evil religion is at the root of all this nonsense; what a paradise it would be if people would suddenly come to their senses an no longer believe in this evil religions.

[Biniou7]

I can't tell which religions you think are "evil", but Al Smith himself was eventually appointed a Papal Chamberlain, a very high honor for a lay Catholic. Read Murray Rothbard's "The Progressive Era and the Family" for an account of how religion did and didn't play into prohibition. Post-millenial Evangelical pietism had much to do with it; other protestants had mixed reactions to it; and Catholics and other "liturgical" Christians actively opposed it.

[turfclub9]

Too bad the mistake was repeated with the "war on drugs".

[funnyarab]

what about weed?

[prl1973]

Great idea putting this up, thanks!